


felix's first (disaster) crush

by WattStalf



Series: Commissions [46]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Crushes, F/M, Teacher-Student Relationship, commission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21620680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WattStalf/pseuds/WattStalf
Summary: Felix has a crush on his TA and tries to impress her in a coffee shop, which definitely could have gone better.
Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius/My Unit | Byleth
Series: Commissions [46]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1325462
Comments: 5
Kudos: 60





	felix's first (disaster) crush

**Author's Note:**

> Fluffy commission, finishing off my November batch!

Felix has never been one to get crushes. He never understood the point of it, never knew what it felt like to be interested in someone else like that. Hell, he barely knew what it was like to be interested in anyone; the friends he made always seemed to approach him on their own, deciding he was their friends, regardless of what he had to say on the subject. So, with hardly any experience being interested in another person at all, he manages to enter college without ever having been romantically interested at all.

And then Byleth happens, and he has no idea what to do.

He doesn’t know what it is about her that draws him in almost immediately. She’s very attractive, he knows, because some of his classmates won’t shut up about it, but looks wouldn’t be enough to capture his interest that suddenly, and consume his thoughts so intensely. Perhaps it’s because, on that first day of class, she seemed so unusual amongst the other TAs for his Fodland Military History course, standing amongst them with a blank expression on her face with the others either beamed with excitement or offered nervous smiles and fidgeted as they waited to introduce themselves.

When she introduced herself, she sounded so deadpan that Felix wondered how she would keep the students in her section from falling asleep, but then, as she began to explain her interest in the subject, her face began to light up, a little bit of emotion came into her voice, and that was the end of the line for him. Some point not long after that, he began to realize that he was falling for her, but by then, it was too late to do anything about it.

The class meets three times a week, twice in the big lecture hall with everyone, and then on Fridays, they go to classrooms with their sections, each section under a specific TA. Felix is lucky (unlucky?) enough to have Byleth as his TA, where he gets the chance to see her talk about the subject, going over what they would have learned in class that week, and he sees the way her face changes in real time, every single week, making it impossible to get her off his mind.

One day, she starts a discussion on conflict in real life, which turns somehow to competitive sports due to the other students getting off topic, and that gets Byleth onto the subject of fencing. Felix has fenced since he was a child; so has Byleth. By the end of that class, the other students have all lost interest in the topic and begun working on their own things, while Byleth and Felix have wasted far too much time discussing the finer points of swordplay.

Before now, he’s never understood crushes and has never had one, and even now that he  _ does _ have one, he still has no idea what he’s supposed to do. Obviously, he couldn’t ask out his TA even if he wanted to, but he isn’t sure that he would want to anyway. He’s never had any interest in relationships, and wouldn’t know what to do if he had one. They couldn’t just talk about fencing all the time, could they?

His closest friends, Sylvain and Ingrid, pick up on his interest infuriatingly quickly, because he’s stupid enough to talk about Byleth in front of them, thinking that he can be subtle and that they would never expect him to have a crush on someone, that they would never catch on. By the end of that conversation, they’re teasing him mercilessly, and he vows to never speak of her to anyone again.

That doesn’t stop them from giving him shit whenever they have the chance, which makes him wonder why he even bothers talking to them at all, but he’s known them for years, and hasn’t been able to shake them loose yet. It doesn’t have that they’ve both gotten jobs at a fairly decent coffee shop, one that Felix frequents despite the two of them working there. Usually, they don’t have time to make fun of him while they’re working, so it’s honestly a preferable place to have to see them.

Now, the semester is coming to an end, and with finals in a week, he has already had his last class with Byleth. The entire semester passed him by without him figuring out how to handle his crush, but he supposes now he will at least finally be able to move on with his life. He has to focus on studying for finals now, and stops into the coffee shop one Saturday morning, planning to spend the rest of the day preparing for his upcoming exams.

When he steps into the shop, he sees her. Standing at the back of the line, looking up at the menu, probably with that same blank expression on her face, is Byleth, the TA he has spent the past semester completely infatuated with. Felix briefly considers turning and immediately leaving, but Ingrid is behind the counter and she waves at him as soon as he enters, so he knows that there’s no escape. She’s in a different section for his history class, but she attends the same lectures; she knows who Byleth is, and has probably already noticed that she’s here. Felix really has no way out of this one.

So he just steps in line behind Byleth, wondering if he should say something or if he should keep his head low and hope that she doesn’t recognize him, all while he pretends not to recognize her. If he’s being completely honest with himself, he wants her to notice him, and would like to spend some time talking to her. There are questions he’d like to ask her about fencing, and really plenty of topics that he would enjoy discussing with her, but he just stares at the ground, praying that Ingrid doesn’t decide to say anything to embarrass him, or worse, that Sylvain might come out and decide to tease him, because that totally seems like something Sylvain would do.

The line moves further forward, and then it’s Byleth’s turn to order, and he can’t help but listen to what she gets, his curiosity getting the better of him. Triple shot espresso.

_ Damn _ , that somehow feels a lot more mature than the mocha latte he always gets. He’s never been the type to feel self-conscious about a  _ coffee order _ , but there really is something about Byleth that throws him completely off-balance, and as he steps to the front of the line and she steps aside, she finally notices him, saying, “Hello, Felix.”

“Oh, hey,” he says, hoping that he sounds as casual as he wants to. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Well, I’d heard good things about it, so I wanted to give it a try,” she replies.

“I always-” he starts, but Ingrid interrupts him with a cough.

“Can you place your order, Felix?” she asks. “Or should I assume you want the usual?”

There’s no way he’s going to order his usual in front of Byleth. Absolutely no way, so he shakes his head and says, “Actually, I want to try what she had.”

“Are...you sure about that?” Ingrid raises a brow, and he can tell she wants to say something, but he gives her a sharp look, telling her that she better not dare. Sighing, she puts in his order and waves him off, and Byleth is still standing nearby, waiting for her order.

She waves him over, asking, “What was it you were saying?”

“Oh, I was just saying that I always come here,” he replies, not sure why that sounds stupider out loud than it did in his head. It’s just a simple statement, so why is he overthinking it so much? Why does he always overthink with her, when he’s never cared this much about anything before?

She nods and their conversation drops off there, and Felix can’t think of anything else to say. He could probably ask her about fencing, but his mind goes blank, and he can’t actually think of a decent question to ask, or any sort of starting point. Though he’s spent an embarrassing amount of time  _ imagining _ conversations with her outside of class, now that he finally finds himself with an opportunity, he can’t actually do it. He is absolutely a disaster at this, and he swears right then and there that he is  _ never _ going to have another crush again. Next time, he’ll be more on guard, he’ll know what to look for, and he will shut it down before it has even the slightest chance of progressing.

Felix tenses when he notices the line dropping off and Ingrid slipping into the back, because he just  _ knows _ that she’s telling Sylvain, and maybe even Bernadetta, about this, not that the latter will have much of a chance to tease him. He’s not sure how the mousy girl who hides in the kitchen area and mostly talks through the door when he’s one of the only customers and talking to one of his friends managed to latch onto him, but she’s added herself to his list of friends.

His fear is confirmed when Sylvain emerges with their orders in hand, each one marked with their names, and he gives Byleth that obnoxious smile he gives to almost every girl- with Ingrid and Bernadetta being notable exceptions- as he hands her the cup. “I really hope you enjoy it,” he says.

Felix doesn’t give him the opportunity to say anything to him as he snatches it away, and Sylvain looks ready to laugh any moment before ducking back behind the doors. He’s so annoying, and what’s more, Felix is pretty sure that, if he weren’t right there glaring daggers at him, that Sylvain would have tried to hit on Byleth, whether he knew Felix liked her or not.

He notices that Byleth has already started drinking her coffee, so he follows her cue, putting his to his lips so he can try it. Perhaps that will be something they can talk about, and he can get her in a conversation before she leaves, and somehow save this whole awkward situation. At least, that’s what he plans to do, but as soon as he takes a long swallow of the coffee, not bothering to sample the flavor before he went all the way in, he finds himself gagging.

Gagging really hard, actually, because it’s so bitter that it’s  _ nasty _ , and he’s normally able to handle bitterness pretty well. But this is something else, with a flavor that he absolutely can’t tolerate, and certainly not in as large of a dose as he’s just attempted to ingest.

He has no choice but to spit it back into his cup, and even then, he isn’t able to stop gagging. Byleth is staring at him with mild concern, and Ingrid is trying her best not to collapse in a heap of laughter behind the counter. The two in the kitchen are not nearly as subtle, and he can hear them both through the door; Sylvain’s hearty laughter, and Bernadetta’s shrill cackles, both of them having a great laugh at his expense as he totally humiliates himself in front of Byleth.

Even once he’s recovered, he’s frozen in place, with no idea what to do now. There’s no way in hell he can make a decent conversation out of this, and he’d be better off just running out of here before anything worse can happen to him, but he knows that his friends will never let him hear the end of this. Well, at least classes are almost over, and he’ll probably never see him again.

“First time?” she asks, and he wishes that he could disappear.

“Yeah,” he mutters, surprised that he’s recovered enough to speak.

“You get used to it,” she says. “It’s not the best, but when you’ve got papers to grade and study guides to write up and emails to answer, sometimes that’s the only thing that can keep you up all night, so you have to make do. Seriously, never become a teacher.”

Is she...actually talking to him? Without making fun of him? Felix is hesitant, but slowly replies, “I wasn’t planning on it.”

“Well, you should probably start slowly and work your way up to that,” she says. “I know this is your usual place, but I know another really nice shop, if you want to check it out.”

“Um...sure, where is it?” he asks, not sure where she’s going with this, and not wanting to get his hopes up.

“Since the semester’s over, it wouldn’t be a problem for me to take you there sometime,” Byleth says. “That is, if you want to. I actually had a few things I wanted to ask you about fencing, too, so when your finals are over…”

In that moment, Felix forgets all about Ingrid behind the counter, all about Sylvain and Bernadetta behind the doors. As he and Byleth exchange numbers, he doesn’t even care that he’s bought a coffee he can’t drink, and he leaves with a hint of a smile tugging at his lips.

Sure, that could have gone better, but he decides that he’s perfectly content with how it turned out.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're interested in my writing updates, please follow my fanfiction twitter @WattStalf  
> 


End file.
